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If there is one thing that is critical to success as a picker or fruit owner – it is communication!

The more fruit pickers and fruit owners communicate about their expectations and the pick, the happier everyone will be. And we don’t just mean talking to the fruit owner, we mean emailing EVERYONE involved in a pick. It’s best to connect with all pickers and the fruit owner in group emails. For example if it’s a flexible pick with someone picking on Tuesday and someone else picking on Wednesday, they should be emailing each other and the fruit owner to figure out important things like how much fruit each person wants to pick, how the sharing is going to work, who will share 1/3 with a community organization, etc.

When and how often should we connect?

Connect two or three times, depending on how complex the pick and the number of pickers. A flexible pick with multiple pickers may take a little more coordinating than a pick with a set date and time. Here’s what we would recommend.

Connect at sign up.

Fruit Pickers – The second you hit the Blue Attend button, you’ll see your screen flash as new information is made available on the pick information. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the email address of the fruit owner. If there are other pickers, you’ll also see their email addresses. Hit the CONTACT FRUIT OWNER button and/or EMAIL ATTENDEES and your email browser should open up ready for you to send an email. Now is a good time to send a quick message to start building rapport with the fruit owner and other pickers. Even if you don’t have any questions, just send a note to say Hello.

Fruit Owners – When a fruit picker signs up to pick your fruit, you’ll get an email message with a link to your listing. Follow that link and Hit the EMAIL ATTENDEES button towards the bottom of the Pick Information. Go ahead and say hello!

2. Connect for specific questions and answers.

3. Connect the day before the pick just to confirm details and make sure everything is still on track.

What should we be talking about?

In addition to building rapport, make sure that everyone has clear expectations and understanding about the following:

who’s picking how much at what time (especially important on Flexible Picks so there’s good accessible fruit for everyone)

how the group will manage dropped fruit and compost

who will bring what equipment

how fruit is going to be shared – does the fruit owner want 1/3, will each picker share 1/3 of their harvest or will one person take the shared portion

who will complete the harvest feedback on the Fruit Connect App

is anyone bringing kids

is anyone bringing a camera, is everyone okay with photos being shared on social media or with Fruit Share